Im not going to comment on states outside of WA as I have NFI what goes on out of here
But we just moved back to Perth after 8 years living in the Pilbara. From my looking around, the only truely affordable housing in Perth is to either build as cheap as you can or buy establised in the ****ty suburbs. I belive (although most propably wrong
) that the current rental market here is a strong indication that housing is unafordable to buy. I spent 6 years in Karratha and watched the housing/rental prices skyrocket, and I can see the same thing happening here - although it will never (hopefully) get to that same level of craziness.
We brought our first home when I was at the end of my second year apprenticship - grand old age of 20. We hunted for a cheap well layed out house and managed to find one, just the street was a little busy, but certainly far from the worst to live on - but excellent location with shops just across the road and major high school a few minutes walk. We still own this house, but havent lived in it for the years we where up north.
For those who think negative gearing is to blame, I think not. Have a think about what it is - negative income! how sustainable do you think it would be to own 6 propertys all negative geared on an average or normal income. I think negative geared housing has had accountants talking it up more than its worth for too many years - but thats just my uneducated thoughts
Now we are just buying our second house - one to live in. And with 2 kids and a 3rd on the way we found it a scary thought to build in Perth - there is no way my kids would be happy living on a block with less than a couple of metres between the house and back fence. So we made the decision to buy something over 1300sqm. We dont need a huge house, just something comfortable for our family size. And trying to find something that met what we wanted within our (below average) budget was hard. Most houses where too small, we ended up buying a house that was a little more than we budgeted for but ticks all our boxes.
We could have built more affordably, but didnt like that lifestyle of a small block. We could have tried renting, but with 3 kids and two dogs I think we would have had a tough time in the current perth market. We could have kicked our tenant out of or house and lived easily, but the distance is a little over double to get to work - and I work 12hr shifts.
Honestly I would hate to be a first home buyer in the current market, we found it daunting with our first home spending all that money (and that waas under 130K at the time).
I own 3 cars, the newest being my cruiser which is a 97 so Im not greeding wanting a flash new car - unlike I would say a majorty of people in the north-west who all have landcruisers or prados on lease.